Race to prevent disease in wake of flood horror

Millions in emergency aid has already been pledged following the

disaster that has killed up to 1,100 people and led to around two million fleeing their homes.

The Pakistan government has deployed thousands of rescue workers who have saved an estimated 28,000 people and distributed basic food items. But the scale of the disaster is so vast many residents said it seems like officials are doing nothing.

Sohail Altaf, a medical official in Khyber-Pakhtoonkhwa, said: "To avert the looming threat of spread of waterborne diseases, especially cholera, we have dispatched dozens of mobile medical teams in the affected districts."

The flooding comes at a time when the weak and unpopular Pakistani government is already struggling to cope with a faltering economy and a war against Taliban militants and sympathisers that has killed thousands of people in the past few years.

The death toll from the disaster has ranged from about 870 provided by the prime minister's office to 1,100 given by disaster management officials in Khyber-Pakhtoonkhwa who warned that it could go even higher.

Pakistan's international partners have tried to bolster the government by offering millions of dollars in emergency aid.

The British Government pledged 5m which International Development Secretary Andrew Mitchell said would benefit at least 800,000 people and go towards providing safe drinking water, hygiene kits and toilets.

The British aid, which is being channelled through the United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef), will buy about 136,000 hygiene kits, 4,560 toilets, 336,000 bars of sanitising soap, 270,000 buckets or jerry cans, 400,000 water purification kits and 800,000 water purification tablets.

The UK's Department for International Development has already contributed another 5m to the UN-run Pakistan Emergency Response Fund.

Mr Mitchell said: "The UK's contribution to the emergency relief effort will help limit disease and further deaths by helping provide safe drinking water, food, toilets, medical care, and other essential items to at least 800,000 people in Pakistan affected by the monsoon floods."

The UN has estimated that a million people nationwide have been affected by the floods.

Thousands of people remained trapped and authorities said 43 military helicopters and 100 boats had been deployed.

The impact of the floods could be especially difficult in the Swat Valley, where residents were still trying to recover from a major battle between Taliban and the army last spring that caused widespread destruction and drove nearly two million people from their homes.

n The death toll from a bridge collapse caused by heavy flooding in central China rose to 51 yesterday as heavy rains wreaked havoc. The bridge collapsed more than a week ago in Henan province's Yi River as people crowded on to it to watch the flooding.

Floods this year have killed at least 991 people, left 558 missing and caused tens of billions in damage across the country.